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Lake Murray vicinity, etc.



Hi C-birders,

Left the house for a couple of hours yesterday. First stop was the park 
at the north end of Lake Murray Dam. Saw only species that I'd already 
seen from the house: Bufflehead, Common Loon, Pied-billed Grebe.

Next attempted stop was the park at the south end; having misread Robin 
Carter's book, I was shocked and disappointed to find this park closed 
for the winter, and worse yet never made it to the third park which he 
called the best of the three, assuming that this park was the closed one!

Lastly, followed Robin's directions to Hope Ferry Landing. This area has 
apparently changed hands, from SCE&G to Saluda Shoals Park. Sadly, the 
"master plan" for the park calls for roads snaking up and down the entire 
length and width of the land, and widely scattered buildings for 
maintenance, rangers, etc. instead of concentrating development and 
keeping wildlife habitat intact. Call it state park sprawl... Anyway, saw 
a few large flocks of landbirds in the woods, mainly Yellow-rumps and 
Ruby-crowns and Red-bellied Woodpeckers. Lots of White-throats in the 
brush along the river, one Song Sparrow with them, and a Swamp Sparrow in 
each of the two powerline cuts.

More action back here at the house today. Woke up to a corvid ruckus. 
Came down to hear that I had missed some excitement: a "huge hawk or 
something was dive-bombing the coots"; the coots dove underwater to 
escape, until a gang of American Crows mobbed the predator. Soon enough 
the predator flew by again, an immature Bald Eagle! Saw the eagle again 
later in the day. Meanwhile, with the danger passed, the coot raft grew 
tremendously: my one attempted count was cut off at 800, and I estimated 
over 1000 birds total! Also spotted a pair of Red-breasted Mergansers, my 
first for this body of water, along with a raft of 8 Common Loons, lots 
of Bufflehead, and other usual suspects, including a sudden feeding 
frenzy that brought over 100 Ring-Billed Gulls flying in. On land, a 
flock of at least a half-dozen Pine Warblers foraged mostly on and near 
the ground, at one point being chased around by an Eastern Phoebe.

And all without leaving the house!

On the topic of bird preferences for cars, I can attest that my 
now-retired gas-guzzling Explorer has had an Ash-throated Flycatcher slip 
inside through cracked windows on a hot day in New Mexico; I returned and 
released it before any harm was done. And this summer in Texas, just 
before trading the Explorer in, an Altamira Oriole attacked his 
reflection in the side mirrors while his mate stood guard on the radio 
antenna! No birds have investigated my Subaru closely yet, but my 
housemate's 1982 Subaru had a Carolina Wren build a nest in the grille...

And back on the Audubon subject, I don't mind that they focus less on 
birds than they used to. As anyone who reads my long-winded posts knows, 
I like other critters just as much. And the ABA and Cornell's Lab of 
Ornithology put out strictly bird-focused publications. I think I was 
more disappointed that their publications tended to feature fluffy 
articles about the beauty of wildlife and nature, rather than the more 
urgent conservation-focused articles of National WIldlife, the Nature 
Conservancy, etc. But I still don't mind the $5 for CBCing; it's a 
nominal fee for me, and the data could be highly useful for certain 
scientific purposes.

Good birding,

Josh



Joshua S. Rose
Duke University
Department of Biology (Zoology, R.I.P.)

jsr6@acpub.duke.edu
http://www.duke.edu/~jsr6/